China Historical Dynasty (17) — Yuan Dynasty

Yuan Dynasty was a huge dynasty which was set up by the Mongolian nationality, It is the first dynasty which the ethnic minority rule in China history and its territory is the biggest in China history.

The Mongolian nationality is an old nationality, They have been living a nomadic life all the time. A remarkable leader appeared in the Mongols in the 12th century — Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan set up “Yeke Mongghol Ulus” in A.D.1206 (Yeke Mongghol Ulus meaning is great Mongolia empire). The Mongolian nationality became powerful gradually under Genghis Khan’s leadership , carried on the war of aggression and expand its territory constantly. The Mongolian nationality set up Yuan Dynasty in Beijing in A.D. 1271, from then on, Beijing became the political and economic center of China gradually. Yuan Dynasty captured the Sung Dynasty capital Hangzhou in A.D. 1276 and unified China. After this, the Mongols continued being warring, attacked West Asia and Europe with the strong army, attacked Japan and Vietnam twice, attacked Korea and Burma, turned Korea and Burma into a dependency of Yuan Dynasty. The Mongols carried on the war of aggression relying on the strong army, the result of the war is that set up a very huge empire. But serial wars of conquering have brought enormous destruction to numerous old civilization of Eurasia, have brought the enormous disaster to people in the Eurasia.

Because the territory of Yuan Dynasty has expanded to West Asia, The contacts between Europe and China were more frequent, the exchange of technology is faster. The businessman of Venice Marco Polo had once been to China in Yuan Dynasty, detailed noted prosperous scene of the capital of Yuan Dynasty at that time in record of “Marco Polo travel notes”. The emperor of Yuan Dynasty was in order to meet the material demand, levied various taxes from the people constantly. This caused people resist brutal governance of Yuan Dynasty in various forms finally, Zhu Yuan Zhang (The famous peasant uprising general) led the strong insurrectionary army, captured the capital of Yuan Dynasty in A.D. 1368, governance of the Yuan Dynasty finish. Zhu Yuan Zhang set up another dynasty in China history — The Ming Dynasty.

It can make people wise to study history, through this phase of history in China, we can find out: the war is wrong choice of the dynast, though it meet the desire of dynast, but it injures the common people, even if you are very strong, will become extinct finally.

1 Response to “China Historical Dynasty (17) — Yuan Dynasty”

Aladdin

2010.11.13 13:47

Korea wasn’t annexed by Yuan Empire though it was a puppet state. In fact, the territory of Yuan dynasty wasn’t that of Mongol Empire. Yuan dynasty could be longer if there were more good Mongol leaders like Ghenghis Khan or Yuan Shizu (Kublai Khan). Mongolia shared the history with China until the end of Qing dynasty.